The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration is reporting in April of 2011 that eight-two percent of seized cocaine contains Levamisole. The usual fillers in cocaine are baking soda but it is found that Levamisole is being used by dealers to stretch their stash. It is not clear why they are doing this except the fact that studies in rats suggest the drug acts on the same brain receptors as cocaine. We are thinking they are adding it to enhance or extend the cocaine’s effects. So what else are we finding because of this drug. This cocaine with the drug Levamisole could be the reason in a flurry of flesh-eating disease in New York and Los Angeles. The vets use this drug to deworm cattle and other animals and it can rot the skin off noses, ears and cheeks. What is very alarming is that over 80% of the country’s coke supply contains it. Dr. Noah Craft, a dermatologist with Los Angeles Biomedical Research Institute is quoted as saying, “It’s probably quite a big problem and we just don’t know yet how big a problem it really is.” There were case studies done and Craft describes six cocaine users recently plagued by the dark purple patches of dying flesh. These users were from the country’s coastlines but the problem is national. Craft is one of several doctors who come from across the country and they have linked the rotting skin to tainted coke. The wounds on the addict surface days after a hit because of an immune reaction that attacks the blood vessels supplying the skin. Now we all know without blood the skin starves and suffocates.
Even though there is a widespread of this contamination not all the cocaine users are experiencing the flesh rotting reaction. Some may be more vulnerable to the tainted cocaine’s effects. Levamisole can cause rotting skin and it can also prevent the bone marrow from producing infection fighting white blood cells. What a price to pay just for the high you need because you are an addict. Dr. Craft said, “that it is a little bit like having HIV.” Users that have taken in cocaine just recently should get some medical attention. This condition can be fatal. “About 10 percent of those patients will die from severe infections. They may be walking around like a time bomb.”
If you or someone you love has a cocaine problem, make a call to an inpatient drug rehab you can rely on. The phone number is 1-877-340-3602. Cocaine addiction is a serious problem, but you can be helped.